Tony Mowbray felt referee Anthony Taylor failed to take any time to assess Richie Smallwood’s tackle before showing him a red card in Rovers’ defeat at Sheffield United.

Smallwood was sent off with 20 minutes to play, with the score at 0-0, before Rovers went on to lose 3-0.

Mowbray admits the referee, officiating his first Championship match of the season, couldn’t be blamed for the poor defending which his side fall to a third successive victory.

But he felt the Premier League referee couldn’t wait to brandish the red card having sent off Sheffield United defender Chris Basham 20 minutes before.

Smallwood caught team-mate Elliott Bennett, as well as United striker Billy Sharp, with the Rovers utility man looking to have come off worse.

When asked about the possibility of an appeal, Mowbray said: “I haven’t looked at it so I don’t know.

“What I saw, the picture I see in my mind is of Richie going in with his studs showing.

“It will interesting if he caught his own player.

“I don’t know whether it’s a red if you catch your own player.

“Elliott Bennett and Richie Smallwood came in and it was a bit of a sandwich, the referee couldn’t get the card out of his pocket quick enough.

“He has not taken any time to assess it and my opinion of it is that he just wanted to even it up.

“I said to the fourth official it looked like he (the referee) liked the last 10 minutes, the intensity went out of the game, and that’s what I think he’d hoped for and that’s not what it was.

“I think he mismanaged it in my opinion.”

The referee came in for criticism from the home fans, booking three players inside the opening half an hour.

And after sending off Basham, Mowbray felt the official was eager to even up the numbers.

“I’ve seen it right in front of me, if anything Richie catches Elliott rather than their player,” Mowbray added.

“I think the referee just needed any excuse to make the game more even didn’t he.

“Ten against 11 there was only one winner, we were being patient and getting behind them with balls in the box.

“One moment you’ve got the whole stadium singing ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ and then the next moment he’s made a really ridiculous decision in their favour.

“I think he’s just mismanaged the game, I can’t stand here and blame the referee for the three goals that went in.”